Influencers. Today we think of them in the context of social media. As an agent or advisor, we can think about Centers of Influence in many ways. They might be people who advise others. They can also be people who know other people. People who can get you access to other people. People who can get someone to do something for you as a favor to them. Instead of looking at COI’s from the inside out, it’s a smarter strategy to become one of them instead. It’s not that hard.
- LinkedIn. Work to build your network of 1st level connections. Avoid the brute force strategy of hiring a service that will send anonymous messages to hundreds or thousands, expecting a small return. Look at your contacts. Invite them to connect. Look at people in your industry. How many people do you know in common? Invite them. Make an effort to get to know them. Renew relationships.
- Meet people socially. Whenever you attend community events, try to meet six new people. Identify interests in common. When appropriate, exchange contact information. Take notes afterwards. This works well if you treat them as the most interesting person in the room.
- Meet the kids and parents. With clients, we think of selling up and selling down. With close friends, take an interest in the next and previous generation.
- Renew vacation connections. You made friends on holiday. Keep up with them. During the pandemic, we had an excellent network. We knew from firsthand reports on the ground how the lockdown was happening in several countries across five continents.
- Send holiday cards. You might think it’s fallen out of favor, but a Christmas card and a holiday letter keep connections fresh.
Using your influencer skills
An advisor in the Boston area had a friend who just lost his job. We would consider it a specialized field. The fellow asked the advisor, “Who do you know in the field?” The advisor took the time to connect him with someone in his network. The connection turned into a job for the friend. The advisor was now an influencer.
This ties into fundraising too. You give a gift to a local charity. Your firm likely has a matching gift program. The charity gets twice as much. You gift gets you into recognition events with the great and the good in your local area. You make more connections. The charity wants more contributions. The charity starts to think of you as an influencer too. Meanwhile, you are expanding your network.
A third influencer skill involves your ability to raise money for a nonprofit. You have that rare ability to look people in the eyes and ask them for money. This puts you on the revenue side of the equation at your nonprofit.
They will want you doing it more often. They won’t want to lose you. Perhaps putting you in front of the right people and getting you the right social invitations will be how they thank you. Other nonprofits will try to get you over to their side.
Your fundraising puts you in front of wealthy people. In many cases they like the people they meet who raise money, bringing them into their social circles.
Look what’s happened! You started by seeking out influencers. You became an influencer yourself.
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